Logan's First birthday party

 First, let me thank everyone who commented and reached out to me about heading back to work. Your words comforted me and helped me to get through my training, Thank you!

Now, onto the fun stuff...

Back in October, we started to discuss plans for Logan's first birthday. We threw around a few ideas but quickly came to the conclusion that we would love to have it at our new house (a lot of our friends had not been over to see it yet) and we wanted it to have a Robots theme.

I knew, with Halloween and Thanksgiving, that his party was going to sneak up on us so I made a list of all the ideas I had for the party, food and decoration. With that list, I made a long 'to-do' list with tasks for each week. (This is what I did for my wedding.) I got a little excited about decorations and activities for the day so I prioritized them and started with the most important. I'm a very "do it yourself" crafty type of person (my mom used to teach art) so I have learned that things always take longer than you think they will. We didn't even get to half of the decorations on my list... but that ok! 

Geoff made an amazing Happy Birthday banner that we hung in the family room. I strung crepe paper all over the play room and added monthly photos I have taken of Logan from month one to eleven.
(The Mini Trampoline hiding in the corner was our big gift to Logan and has been a huge hit.)

We decided that we were going to tackle to food (besides the cakes) by ourselves as well. The week before, we were feeling a little overwhelmed and Geoff's mom flew in from Seattle to help us entertain Logan while we prepped. She stayed for the party and it was wonderful to have her with us!

We scheduled the party for 10am since Logan is happiest in the mornings. We figured it would go on until everyone left or he collapsed from exhaustion for a nap. He was a little overwhelmed in the beginning, when people started to come and we were trying to take coats and say hello. Having an extra set of arms really helped!

As for food, we had-

 Chocolate covered pretzels (sticks that were set out and twists for everyone to take home)

Veggie tray and dip

Chips and dip

Homemade applesauce and animal crackers (for the kids)

Baked brie in a puff pastry with crackers

Crockpot chili

White Chicken Chili

and Cake!

I definitely wanted to have a cake smash for his party. We had our cakes made by Triolo's Bakery and they did a wonderful job on them. (They even gave us his cake smash for free)

When it was time, we sat Logan down in his highchair, brought over the cake and sang Happy Birthday. He seemed a little confused during the song but was excited to get his fingers into the cake.

It took him a few minutes to get into it and then he didn't really want to eat the cake part... only the icing. He had a great time getting cake and icing all over his clothes and in his hair. We changed his outfit and gave him a nice soapy bath that night. Very fun to see him so happy!

We ended up having 10 kids and 20 adults (not including us). This blew my mind and made me so so grateful for the friends we have made here in NH in the last year. Last year we hardly knew anyone and this year we were surrounded by people who we love and who were there to love and celebrate Logan. I feel so so blessed.

(Logan playing with his buds!)

We brought out his wagon to place the gifts in and were shocked when it was filled to the top. What nice friends Logan has to spoil him like this!

I can't believe we have a one year old! Tell me time slows down now...